A Tribute to Yves Congar

The Catholic World 238 (1995): 284-285

A Tribute to Yves Congar by Mark E. Ginter November/December, 1995 Any sophisticated discussion of a Catholic perspective on ecumenism can hardly proceed without acknowledging the contributions of this century's best known Catholic theologian on ecumenism, Yves M.-J. Congar, O.P. Our hearts rejoiced a year ago when he was made a cardinal of the Catholic Church by Pope John Paul II on Nov. 24, 1994. That joy is now mixed with some sadness. Cardinal Congar died this year on June 22. But because of our Christian belief that in death life has changed, not ended, we can now rely on the ceaseless intercession of Cardinal Congar that one of his deepest desires may be realized - visible reunion among Christian Churches. For those of us who have only known a post-Vatican II Church, Congar's contributions to ecumenism are monumental. As a member of the first generation of theologians who were born since the Council, I offer this brief tribute to a giant in the cause for reunification, beginning with some of his background. Congar's ecumenical thrust in theology was a natural outgrowth of his childhood experiences. He was born April 8, 1904, in Sedan, France, a strong center of Calvinist/Reformed Protestantism. His closest friend in childhood was the son of the Reformed pastor in Sedan. Such friendly environs from early on accounted for the attraction he had in later years to study Reformation theology. In 1920, he experienced a call to the priesthood. He arrived in Paris to study philosophy, where, under the neo-Thomist master Jacques Maritain, he concentrated on the work of St. Thomas Aquinas. In 1926, he began studying theology with the Dominicans at Le Saulchoir in Belgium, primarily under an older Dominican, Marie Dominique Chenu. Besides the systematic manuals which all seminarians were required to study, Chenu introduced Congar to a new trend, the study of the Church Fathers and the history of theology. This movement was called ressourcement théologie or return to the sources. While on his preordination retreat in the summer of 1930, he chose to focus on Jesus' prayer for unity in John 17:17-23 with commentaries by St. Thomas and Marie Joseph LaGrange, O.P. During this retreat, Congar had an experience which he later called his "ecumenical vocation." He believed that he should give his life to the reconciliation of the Churches and, in word and deed, to seek the visible unity of the church of Christ. As a first fruit of this vocation, he titled his doctoral dissertation, The Unity of the Church in Thomas Aquinas.

Sixty years ago in January, during "The Church Unity Octave," Congar delivered a series of lectures. One year later, in 1937, these were compiled into his first book, and possibly most significant work on ecumenism, Chrétiens désunis (Divided Christendom). Many of Congar’s ideas about ecumenism that were articulated in this book, or in his successive writings, were received into the church at the Council, and also in Pope John Paul's latest encyclical Ut Unum Sint ("That All May Be One"). Congar's studies in church history led him to the same conclusion as nineteenthcentury British theologian John Henry Cardinal Newman; namely, that doctrine goes through a process of development. Unfortunately, the events of the 1054 Schism between Rome and Constantinople and the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation, gave rise to distortions of the true catholic (universal) faith. A return to the sources - especially the ecumenical councils of the first millennium - are an invaluable deposit from which to draw healing for a visibly broken Mystical Body of Christ. This line of thinking had serious repercussions, not just positively for the possible unity of Christians, but also negatively for those theologians who engaged in ressourcement théologie. In 1942, Fr. Chenu's defense of this methodology went on the Index of Forbidden Books. Fr. Congar was forbidden by officials in Rome to deliver a paper on the Roman Catholic contributions to Christian unity at the first world assembly of the World Council of Churches in 1948. Four years of censorship and review between 1946 to 1950 bogged down the publication of Congar's most volatile book, Vraie et Fausse Reforme de L'Eglise (True and False Reform of the Church). The only translation authorized was in Spanish. Until 1956, Congar traveled "in exile" to Jerusalem, Rome, and Cambridge because of the suspicion surrounding his ideas. But church historian Cardinal Angelo Roncalli had read Congar’s work, and later, when he (Cardinal Roncalli) became Pope John XXIII, he named Congar one of the first experts (periti) for the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. Along with Fr. Chenu, Henri de Lubac, S.J., and others who had propelled ressourcement théologie to the forefront of theological thought, Congar's name and reputation were restored. It would appear that Congar was the theologian who worked on the most documents issued by the Council. Pope John Paul II mentions him by name in Crossing the Threshold of Hope (p. 159) as a help to the young bishop from Cracow, when they worked together on the schema for the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. After the Council, Congar made significant contributions to a theology of the laity with his 1953 ground-breaking book, Jalons pour une théologie du laïcat (Lay People in the Church) and the follow-ups Sacerdoce et laïcat (A Gospel Priesthood and Christians Active in the World). More than anything else, though, Congar's theology has to be understood as a systematic and visible expression of his spirituality. Because the life in the Spirit was not only his starting point, but also his goal, every theological endeavor of his focuses on our participation in the life of the Trinity.

Immediately after he wrote Divided Christendom, he wrote Esquisses du Mystère de l'Eglise (The Mystery of the Church) in 1941. Over the next forty years, working out an ecclesiology was a major concentration in his research, yielding numerous works. In these writings, he used the various biblical titles for the church. Yet he began with a concentration on the church as the Mystical Body of Christ; but, over time, this concentration switched to the People of God, while also giving more attention to the Church as the Temple of the Holy Spirit. These three titles serve as his primary ones, and each has a particular referent to a Person of the Trinity. In other words, in a very simple way, one can detect how Congar's theology began with a Christocentrism in his regular use of the title "Body of Christ." In his maturing thought, he moved away from this focus to a deeper penetration of the mystery of God the Father, using more frequently the title "People of God." But, as he continued his journey, he paid increasing attention to the activity of the Holy Spirit. Although, he uses the title Temple of the Holy Spirit from time to time, that title never prevailed. From Congar's perspective, the Holy Spirit's mission is not to draw attention to himself, but rather to continue the mission of the Son, Jesus Christ, to reconcile the world to the Father. Thus, the greater use of the concept of the church as the People of God is intended to reveal the Father as the Source of Divinity, the Principle of the missions of the Son and the Spirit who will lead us back to the Father. For Congar, the oneness of the church is a communication of the unity in the Godhead through the multiplicity of Divine Persons. This Trinitarian referent of unity through diversity propelled his ecumenical endeavors from the very start all the way up to the end. He made a couple of concrete proposals which we must consider now, especially in light of the recent encyclical on ecumenism. Although Congar realized that the perfect unity which Jesus prayed for in John 17 is probably more eschatological than real, nevertheless, Congar believed that visible, concrete unity could be attained, particularly with certain "separated ecclesial communities" as he first referred to them in 1936. Unity with the Anglican Church, on the surface, seemed remote, but within the realm of possibility. He concretized his proposals for two other ecclesial bodies, though, with a greater hope for possible reunion. He suggested that the church, while in an irreversible commitment to unity, should adopt a "hierarchy of truths" and a "re-reception" of certain doctrines. The "hierarchy of truths" had great theoretical validity for Congar, especially when the Council enunciated this idea in the Decree on Ecumenism. The idea of "rereception" is to accept doctrines which the Catholic Church had rejected in another time, under polemical circumstances, and in limited meaning into the present by recontextualizing them to our time, our circumstances and deeper penetration of meaning. Specifically, Congar believed that the Church should re-receive the Lutheran Augsburg Confession of 1530 and the Orthodox statements on the Essence-PersonsEnergies of God as espoused by St. Gregory Palamas in the fourteenth century. While Luther became a focus of his study during a later period in his life, Congar really fell in

love with the Christian East. St. Symeon the New Theologian (949-1022) became a favorite of his, especially in his climactic three volume work, Je crois en l'Esprit Saint (I Believe in the Holy Spirit). While John Paul has made the idea of the Church breathing with "both lungs" - the West and the East - a staple of his ecumenical approach, Cardinal Congar must receive the credit for expounding this metaphor first, and often. Even though Cardinal Congar never saw with his physical eyes the unity which he so passionately sought among Christians, we can continue the work he had so prodigiously begun. Merci beaucoup, Cardinal Congar! for your life of dedication to unity in the Body of Christ. We pray that with your help and prayers each of us may be holier Temples of the Spirit working together for all the People of God.